USB Thumb-Drive || Other Flash Memory

Kyle L.

I'm looking for a cheap and easy way to connect some kind of flash memory to a BS2 to allow the storage and retrieval of information in text files.

Basically, I want the stamp to read/write text files to some kind of flash memory that can then be removed and read/written to by computer. I know there is the USB data-logger, which would work fine, but it's a bit too high price for what I need to do - I need to shave off cost wherever I can.

The flash memory doesn't have to be a thumb-drive, it could be a memory card or somesuch, as long as it can be read & written to by a computer. It also doesn't have to have a lot of storage space. i.e. less than a megabyte would be okay, but more than that is okay too; the amount of space available isn't that important.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Post Edited (Kyle L.) : 1/15/2010 4:12:44 AM GMT

Mike Green

The memory stick datalogger is $35. You're not going to do significantly better with anything else. A BS2 simply doesn't have the resources to manage any kind of PC compatible mass storage. Anything you use will need either a USB host with a file system controller like the Vinculum used in the datalogger or some kind of SD card file system manager like those made by Rogue Robotics' uMMC ($50). You could use a Propeller Protoboard for $30 and mount an SD card socket on it. There are drivers that would let you read and write text files on the SD card and interface with the BS2. You could also dispense with the BS2 entirely and put your whole application on the Propeller. There are a variety of tools available to help in converting Stamp programs to the Propeller.

You could attach several EEPROMs to a pair of Stamp I/O pins. Atmel and Microchip have standard EEPROMs with 128K byte capacity and you can put 4 of them on one pair of I/O pins for a total of 512K. There's no interface for the PC end of things, but you could use another Stamp there as an interface. There's no file system for the EEPROM, but it would be easy enough to set something up that would work for your simple task.

The cheapest solution is to get Parallax's datalogger.

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I did find that DigiKey has the Vinculum VDrive2 for $25 in single quantities. This is equivalent to the Parallax memory stick datalogger.

Post Edited (Mike Green) : 1/15/2010 4:41:21 AM GMT

Kyle L.

Maybe switching to the Propeller would be a good idea. I've been looking for a good excuse to make the investment and start learning with the Prop, so I might just give that a go.

Thanks for the advice.